A Guide to Legal Loitering

[thelakelander]

The law protects your right to loiter, but the line between "hanging out" and "committing a crime" is blurry.

Loitering is protected, first and foremost, by the 14th Amendment. The courts have generally recognized that the right to due process includes the liberty to "remove from one place to another according to inclination," in the words of a 1900 decision. The right to loiter has also faced two substantial recent challenges. In 1972, Margaret Papachristou challenged a vagrancy ordinance in Jacksonville, Florida, on the grounds that it was too vague; she won. The court found the ordinance encouraged arbitrary and erratic arrests, placing "almost unfettered discretion in the hands of the police."

Full article: http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2014/09/a-guide-to-legal-loitering/380615/

[sheclown]

Loitering (even on one's own porch) was declared HUMAN BLIGHT by Denise Lee on several occasions in her subcommittee. 

Interesting stuff.  It isn't about the "where" as much as the "who."